/lit/ - Literature

>>16500957
>Any books that address the fact that the actual text of the Bible doesn't matter, and all that matters is how it's interpreted by those in power?

Texts, no matter how concise or how clear, are *always* subject to disputes in interpretation; and those disputes only grow with the complexity and age of the text (as, eg, the cultural assumptions that undergirded the text's composition are eroded and finally disappear with the changing generations).

Thus, what it finally comes down to is an issue of authority: who has the *authority* to make a binding interpretation? Well, Jesus had a thing or two to say about that. Anon, I would suggest you read:

Mark Shea, By What Authority?
>https://www.amazon.com/What-Authority-Evangelical-Discovers-Tradition/dp/0879738510
Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism
Karl Adam, Roots of the Reformation
Chesterton, The Dumb Ox

Love of God is only possible once one acknowledges that he is a sinner who is eternally unworthy.

>>16377896
It's too friggin long, and I hate endnotes (why couldn't he have used footnotes?), but yeah, i'll read it someday, but today i just want to read his riffs on weed addiction.

>>15347322
>Surely there is a better way to explain why the problem of evil is bs

Look, there's no entirely satisfying way to make the case that the "problem of evil" does not ultimately defeat the reality, ex hypothesi, of the goodness of God.

With that said, an "explanation" along these lines:
>I ask if the fact children get bone cancer make them cherish life more

Yikes, anon, is there anybody who would find that persuasive?

Here is a good, clear, concise presentation on the subject -- it's a better way to address the problem of evil; there may be (and likely are) even better ways yet; but I'm not sure there's an entirely *satisfying* explanation of the problem this side of paradise.

https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/the-problem-of-evil

>>15338997

Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc is, arguably, the greatest Christian film in the history of cinema.

Critics of all stripes rank it highly.